.......With Half A Heart wishes us "pleasant surprises" in 2022 and offers up this play list to help ring in the New Year. Enjoy!
Friday, December 31, 2021
Fifty years ago.........................
Don McClean......................................American Pie
Pessimistically optimistic.................
This disconnect between culturally mandated politics and the actual demonstrated preferences of most Americans has created an enormous reserve of unmet needs—and a generational opportunity. Build new things! Create great art! Understand and accept that sensory information is the brain’s food, and that Silicon Valley is systematically starving us of it. Avoid going entirely tree-blind. Make a friend and don’t talk politics with them. Do things that generate love and attention from three people you actually know instead of hundreds you don’t. Abandon the blighted Ivy League, please, I beg of you. Start a publishing house that puts out books that anger, surprise and delight people and which make them want to read. Be brave enough to make film and TV that appeals to actual audiences and not 14 people on Twitter. Establish a newspaper, one people can see themselves in and hold in their hands. Go back to a house of worship—every week. Give up on our current institutions; they already gave up on us.
-as excerpted from Alana Newhouse's essay, Everything Is Broken
Thursday, December 30, 2021
Rodin................................
 |
| Auguste Rodin Balzac 1893ish |
"I stopped fighting for my sculpture. It has been able to defend itself for a long time now. To say that I scamped my Balzac for fun is an insult which would have infuriated me in the old days. Now I just ignore such things and carry on with my work. My life is one long course of study. To scoff at others would be to scoff at myself. If truth is doomed to die, my Balzac with be smashed to pieces by generations to come. If truth is imperishable, I predict that my statue will make its way in the world. While we are still on the subject of this malicious rumour, which will be slow to subside, I should like to say something. It needs to be said, and said loudly. This work, which people have laughed at and tried to make fun of because they cannot destroy it, is the end product of my entire life and the very hub of my aesthetic. I was a changed man from the day I first conceived it. I developed along radical lines, forging links between the great traditions of the past and my own time—links which grow stronger every passing day. Some may laugh at this statement. I am inured to this and have no fear of sarcasm. I tell you flatly, the Balzac provide me with an inspiring point of departure because its effect is not confined to my own person, because it constitutes a precept and axiom, which is still being debated and will continue to be debated for a long time to come. The battle goes on, as it must do. Balzac is opposed by the exponents of doctrinal aesthetics, the vast majority of the public, and most of the press critics. No matter; by force or by persuasion, it will clear itself a way to the enlightened. Young sculptors come to see it here and think of it while retracing their steps in the direction prescribed by their ideals."
-Bernard Champigneulle, Rodin
Fifty years ago..................................
Bread...........................................Baby I'm-A Want You
The Big Lure (it's that time of year)..............
The big lure of all such moments – as you'll know if you have a similar weakness for time management systems, decluttering initiatives and suchlike – is the promise of making a fresh start. The unspoken hope is that you won't just change a few things for the better, but make a total break with the past. You'll reboot your life, leave disorganization and procrastination behind you once and for all, and do everything differently from now on.
As you're presumably aware, this is a terrible mindset for actually making lasting changes. What you need, instead, are tiny goals and a commitment to incremental progress ("small wins"), plus a willingness to encounter failure after failure as you stumble toward improvement. To put it another way: fresh-startism is a form of perfectionism, and as with all forms of perfectionism, the solution is to stop being such a perfectionist – to resign yourself to the fact that things probably won't unfold as flawlessly as you'd hoped.
-Oliver Burkeman, from here
It would explain a lot.............
It is very likely that intrinsic variability in the functioning of the brain also affects the quality of our judgments in ways we cannot possibly hope to control. . . If our mind is a measuring instrument, it will never be a perfect one.
-Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass Sunstein, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
On the messy stuff............................
My Grandmother, Emma Sue, had a garden at her farm in the North Carolina mountains where she grew Jurassic Park sized vegetables. I asked her one day how she did it.
"Chicken droppings," she said dryly. "A garden won't grow right without it."
It took a few years after that to really enjoy a tomato out of her garden again. But I never forgot the lesson: It's the messy, unpleasant stuff that grows a great garden. Just like sometimes it's the messy stuff in life, the mistakes and wrong turns, that grows a rich existence. Yet we bemoan every tiny mistake.
-Rev. Susan Sparks, Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor
On the Quest for the Best..............
When I think about what gets so much attention these days - reality television where no actors need apply - antics on apps where coarseness is glorified - companies who produce nothing and reap billions in rewards - journalism without facts as long as it clicks - tenths of truths that pass for political tricks - I caution myself not to become too worried or sad. Yes, it may seem the idiots are running the show. When we monetize mediocrity and mendacity, we risk bedlam, you know.
And then I experience some bit of humanity at its best - an action so simple, performed at its finest. A conversation that helps grow my mind or my craft. A neighbor’s action that’s kind, a moment unexpectedly deft. Something so well designed - I see the Best remains real and fresh.
-Matthew Ferarra, from this post
Fifty years ago...........................
.......................back when lip-syncing was an art form:
So don't even try...........................
You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.
On choosing wisely.................
Choose wisely. Keep doing the things your Mom and Grandma taught you. Use your manners. Be polite. Say please and thank you. Wait your turn. Don’t interrupt. Share with others. Be a good friend. Oh yeah, and build relationships, solve problems, and have fun.
-Sean Carpenter, from here
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
About that advice..............
So often productivity advice is limiting. Narrowing. Just pushing us harder to be more like a machine. But we need to expand our minds. And to remember that we’re not computers. (The closest we get to being a machine is that taking a nap often resolves mental issues the way rebooting your laptop resolves computer issues.) Stop trying to be a machine and leverage your humanity to accomplish more. You may never be as efficient as Robocop or the Terminator but those two can’t solve a captcha and you can. When we broaden our minds and connect with others it’s not just productivity that improves. Life does.
-Eric Barker, from this post
Thinking.............................
“I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.”
-Emo Philips, as extracted from here
Opening paragraphs.............................
Wendell Lewis Willkie (1892-1944) was one of the most exciting, intellectually able, and authentically transformational figures to stride the twentieth-century American political landscape. In an era of well-merited disgrace, Willkie served up the American business community's most reasoned, politically effective, and judicially nimble defense against government regulation of the free-market economy. Wendell Willkie baited and debated Franklin Roosevelt, whose imperious sense of self-indispensability was turning his office into an imperial presidency, he warned with cracker-barrel farsightedness. His presidential campaign against Roosevelt was one of the toughest and bitterest (and most disorganized); after which, in defeat, he insisted that his party set a new standard of bipartisanship in Washington. He managed to outwit the isolationist leadership of the party (Herbert Hoover, Robert Taft, and Arthur Vandenberg) and engineer grudging recognition by the party platform of a qualified internationalism.
David Levering Lewis, from the Prologue to The Improbable Wendell Willkie: The Businessman Who Saved The Republican Party And His Country, And Conceived A New World Order
what's wrong with Maybe?
I have refused to live
locked in the orderly house of
reasons and proofs.
The world I live in and believe in
is wider than that. And anyway,
what’s wrong with Maybe?
You wouldn’t believe what once or
twice I have seen. I’ll just
tell you this:
only if there are angels in your head will you
ever, possibly, see one.
-Mary Oliver, The World I Live In
Monday, December 27, 2021
Fifty years ago................................
Carole King......................Some Kind Of Wonderful
Patient.............................
 |
| Auguste Rodin 1897 Bust of Victor Hugo |
Though possessed of great technical skill himself, Rodin did not care for the word. It was skill—as defined by him, at least—that he ascribed the ease and panache with which so many sculptors achieved unmerited success. They only saw and reproduced the outer skin of what they saw, and their statues were like empty shells. "Skill should be distrusted. What people generally mean by the word 'skill' is the dexterity with which someone evades a problem by fostering a belief that he has surmounted it instead of tackling it honestly. Myself, I have had an extraordinarily quick hand since my youth. I could work quickly if I chose to, but I produce slowly in order to do well. Besides, it never was in my nature to hurry. I ponder things more, and I want more. An artist should be patient as well as knowledgeable."
Bernard Champigneulle. Rodin
Worth repeating.............................
Kant, Schopenhauer and Freud are all pessimists who claim that a complete and enduring happiness is impossible because of the infinite character of human desire: to this, the sages of both East and West reply that this happiness is possible on condition that we no longer strive to adjust the world to our desires. Wisdom teaches us to desire and love what is. It teaches us to say "yes" to life. A deep and permanent happiness becomes possible once we have transformed the way we look at the world. We then discover that happiness and unhappiness don't depend on external causes, but on our "state of mind."
-Frederic Lenoir, Happiness: A Philosopher's Guide
It is a big Universe, and there's a lot going on...
-from this APOD post
The movies, past and future.........................
Now, I’m not a hater. I like movies, not films or cinema. I’ll trust the audience over the critics 10 times out of 10 when it comes to which movies to watch.
-From this Ben Carlson post. I will forgive him for not being able to identify correctly the best decade in movies.
On compassion.......................
The surrendered person no longer needs others for personal fulfillment but is with them out of choice because of love and enjoyment. Compassion for others and for their humanness transforms like and all relationship.
-David R. Hawkins, Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender
Sunday, December 26, 2021
Fifty years ago.....................................
America...................................A Horse With No Name
. . . alert and advantageous.................
“That businesspeople buy low and sell high in a particularly alert and advantageous way does not make them bad unless all trading is bad, unless when you yourself shop prudently you are bad, unless any tall poppy needs to be cut down, unless we wish to run our ethical lives on the sin of envy.”
The wisdom of children....................
". . . In fact, they were so unperturbed that 58 percent said they pretended to believe in Santa after realizing the truth—so as not to disappoint their parents."
Ah, history.........................
Abrahman Lincoln was nervous, the floor of the U. S. House of Representatives int eh 1840s was not a particularly pleasant place to give a speech—especially the first major effort of a freshman congressman's career. The chamber was designed to resemble the Roman Pantheon, framed by marble pillars and crimson drapes, but it reminded more than one visitor of an unruly schoolhouse. Members kicked their heels up on the mahogany desks, hollered at the speaker, rustled newspapers, puffed on cigars, and spat tobacco juice on the filthy carpet. The noise, amplified by a cavernous, sixty-foot ceiling, remined one visitor of "a hundred swarms of bees." One of Lincoln's fellow Illinoisans complained that he "would prefer speaking in a pig pen with 500 hogs squealing", or talking "to a mob when a fight is going on" than trying to keep the attention of his colleagues. It was, he recalled, "the most stupid place generally I was ever it."
-Kevin Peraino, Lincoln In The World: The Making of a Statesman and the Dawn of American Power
Might as well enjoy this moment..............
Life, as our physicist mother never tired of reminding my sister and me, is a cosmic accident—a view held by better known physicists such as Murry Gell Mann. our universe began 13.7 billion years ago, in what we call the Big Bang. On our planet, with the help of ultraviolet rays and lightening, the chemical building blocks of life developed, leading to the first living cell 3.5 to 4 billion years ago. Starting about 2 billion years ago, sexual reproduction by simple multicellular organisms unleashed waves of evolutionary innovations. About six million years ago, a genetic mutation in chimpanzees led to the first humanlike apes. Homo sapiens appeared extremely recently, 200,000 to 100,000 years ago, dominated other human types around 30,000 years ago, and had spread to most of the planet by around 13,000 years ago. A lot of things had to go right for us to get to this point. But the "Goldilocks" conditions in which we flourish cannot endure indefinitely. To date, around 99.9 percent of all species over to have inhabited Earth have become extinct.
-Niall Ferguson, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Above all........................
“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
Lurking.............................
In every adult there lurks a child—an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention, and education. That is the part of the human personality which wants to develop and become whole.
Pick your neighbors carefully...................
The world is full of people that have stopped listening to themselves or have listened only to their neighbors to learn what they ought to do, how they ought to behave, and what the values are that they should be living for.
Monday, December 20, 2021
Ideal..........................
The American ideal is about your liberty, not their power.
It's no longer Republican versus Democrat. It's not about good government or bad government. It's not even "liberal" versus "conservative." It's about limiting the government's monopoly on force and unleashing our freedom to try, to choose, to take responsibility, and to make things better. It is about the political elites and the insiders they collude with versus America.
-Matte Kibbe, Don't Hurt People And Don't Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto
Not so much......................
If only disasters were predictable, how much less perplexing life would be!
-Niall Ferguson, Doom: The Politics Of Catastrophe
Worth repeating..............................
"As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible: avoiding occasions of expence by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expence, but by vigorous exertions in time of Peace to discharge the Debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves ought to bear."
-George Washington, as excerpted from his Farewell AddressSunday, December 19, 2021
As my Sweetie likes to say..............
............................about the worst thing that ever happened to television, and this country, is the 24-hours news channel.
'Tis the season...........................
August Burns Red...........................Carol of the Bells
Saturday, December 18, 2021
Sometimes the questions are . . .
. . . more important than the answers. Morgan Housel asks seventeen pretty good question. Here are three:
What are we ignoring today that will seem shockingly obvious in a year?
How much have things outside of my control contributed to things I take credit for?
How do I know if I’m being patient (a skill) or stubborn (a flaw)? They’re hard to tell apart without hindsight.
On binds...............................
It isn't things that bind you, but your attachment to things.
Pack light..................................
Each quandary is a call for experimentation. Each experiment a question put to the world. Each answer a journey. Let life plan the itinerary. Your job is to pack light and bring a camera.
-attributed to Max Elmore, from here
"Condemned" to be happy.......................
We are probably the first societies in history to make people unhappy for not being happy.
-Frederic Lenoir, Happiness: A Philosopher's Guide
Divine.................................
Jennifer Nettles.......................O Holy Night and more
Friday, December 17, 2021
He is a better man than me...............
"Until then, I’ll make my own risotto and duck breast."
For those who want to discuss whether it should be "better man than I" as opposed to "better man than me", you can check this out.
Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Step outside..................................
Smith in his book and with his life is telling us how to live. Seek wisdom and virtue. Behave as if an impartial spectator is watching you. Use the idea of an impartial spectator to step outside yourself and see yourself as others see you. Use that vision to know yourself. Avoid the seductions of money and fame, for they will never satisfy.
-Russ Roberts, How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide To Human Nature And Happiness
The Gap................................
. . . one day as I was wandering between stacks of books in the back of the college library, I came across a book that drew my interest. As I opened it, my eyes fell upon a single paragraph that powerfully influenced the rest of my life.
I read the paragraph over and over again. It basically contained the simple idea that there is a gap or a space between stimulus and response, and that the key to both our growth and happiness is how we use that space.
-Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
Monday, December 13, 2021
a fascinating thread worth pulling.............
Perhaps the greatest lesson from the past is how important it is to be inspired by things that surprise us. When I come across a quirky business model in an unpopular space, I try to find a fascinating thread worth pulling. I challenge myself to stop comparing what I learn to the past. If you only look for patterns of the past, you won't venture far.
On "inside" tips.................................
Wall Street professionals know that acting on "inside" tips will break a man more quickly than famine, pestilence, crop failures, political readjustments or what might be called normal accidents. There is no asphalt boulevard to success in Wall Street or anywhere else. Why additionally block traffic?
-Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
A good question asked.....................
Shouldn't we accept delayed gratification as a virtue and not a punishment?
Friday, December 10, 2021
Opening paragraphs............................
On the same day Adolf Hitler traveled south to the French border with Spain for talks with Generalissimo Francisco Franco, U. S. Ambassador Joseph Patrick Kennedy bid his farewells to senior members of his team at the American embassy in London. As staffers shuffled out of the ambassador's office, some were dabbing tears from their eyes while others sported half-hidden sly smiles. Despite their differences of opinion about the ambassador, each one recognized that it was the end of a turbulent era of American diplomacy in Europe. In his two years and seven months in England, Joe Kennedy had been taken to the people's hearts, then widely loathed. From the outset, he was feared and deemed insufferable by both the White House and the State Department.
-Susan Ronald, The Ambassador: Joseph P. Kennedy At The Court Of St. James, 1938-1940
Wednesday, December 8, 2021
In an unpredictable world.................................
Perhaps these are the ideal conditions in which Stoicism emerges: a homeland lacking strong leadership and buffeted by powerful outside forces; a ringside seat to the perils of excess and greed. It was all an early lesson that in an unpredictable world, the only thing we can really manage is ourselves — and that the space between our ears is the only territory we can conquer in any kind of certain and enduring way.
-Ryan Holiday, Lives Of The Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius
Tuesday, December 7, 2021
On the importance of "minor incidents"......
At that time New York still had one of the finest public-school systems in the country. I was enrolled in the local school, and on my first day there something happened that taught me a very important lesson. It was the classic new-boy situation; I was teased and taunted, and the hazing went on most of the day. I finally turned to the biggest of my tormentors and said, "All right, meet me outside." Everybody knew there was going to be a fight. When school was dismissed, a gang of kids was milling around by the steps of the back yard, waiting. My opponent was waiting too. I was frightened, but there was nothing to do about it. I took of my coat and started running down the stairs at my enemy. My seeming eagerness must have startled him, for I noticed that he wilted just a bit. The fact is, I was expecting to get knocked down and was rushing in to get it over with, but when I saw him flinch, I gained new courage. He gave up after one or two punches. This minor incident was soon forgotten by almost everyone but me; it taught me a lesson that latter applied in business every bit as much as it did in a high-school playground: If you show hesitancy or fear, you may already be half-defeated. If you put on a bold front, and fight with everything you have, you can win. Moreover, once you have won a few battles, you are usually left alone: in the jungle, no one thoughtlessly attacks the lion.
-William Zeckendorf, The Autobiography of William Zeckendorf: The autobiography of the man who played a real-life game of Monopoly and won the largest real estate empire in history
And occasionally some new ones..............
Every new generation of investors has to learn the same lessons as the previous generation. We’re all human after all.
-Ben Carlson, from this post
'tis the season..................................
Christmas must be getting close. Watched Hans Gruber fall off of the Nakatomi Tower last weekend, and the Licking County Courthouse is now officially all decked out.
Sunday, December 5, 2021
The hopeful birth.............................
.......................of a sub-division: Episode 16
Paving.
The only real pressure on this project was the need to get the asphalt paving completed. Asphalt paving is subject to weather. Once it gets too cold, usually around Thanksgiving, the asphalt plants close up, with no more deliveries of asphalt until Spring. No asphalt, no lot sales. No lot sales, big interest carry on the development loan all winter long. Which is, I am sure my lender will forgive me, not a good thing.
We started work on the sub-division later that we planned — the end of the first week of August. A huge amount of work (Episodes 1-15) had to be completed before paving commenced. Would we be able to get it all done in time? Our contractor, Layton Inc., did an amazing job, their crews worked long days, and the weather cooperated. 90 days from commencement, we were ready for asphalt. By mid-November, the base and intermediate coats of asphalt have been paved. The top-coat will follow in the Spring. At this point, however, after finalizing some agreements with the City, we are ready to sell 49 lots. Yippee!
 |
| Paving the cul de sac is tedious |
 |
| The asphalt delivery trucks had a busy day |
 |
| One lane of the base coat is complete |
 |
| Base coat complete, one lane has its intermediate coat |
 |
| Base coat and intermediate coat finished. Ready for the homebuilder to get started |
25 Blogs...............................
I will confess that it was with some nervousness that I checked Kurt Harden's latest iteration of 25 Blogs Guaranteed to Make You Smarter. Being included on his list is a much-prized honor. We certainly don't do this sort of thing for money. Recognition from peers is about all the external reward to be had. Anyway, posting on this blog has been more than a bit spotty here of late. Would it still make the cut? Kurt, being a generous soul, gave me a pass. Will try to do better in the coming days to hold up my end of the bargain.
Checking in with Adam Smith..................
Virtue is multifaceted for Smith, but his big three are prudence, justice, and beneficence. These are the traits that make us lovely and that in turn makes us respected and admired by those around us — the traits that make us loved.
What does Smith mean by prudence, justice, and beneficence? For Smith, prudence means, in modern terms, taking care of yourself, justice means not hurting others, and beneficence means being good to others. That's not a bad trio for thinking about how to live the good life.
-Russ Roberts, How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide To Human Nature And Happiness
Good debt, bad debt.....................................
You will never obtain financial freedom while addicted to debt and consumer spending. Wealth comes from accumulation which is the exact opposite of consumption.
-Jon Hanson, Good Debt, Bad Debt: Knowing the Difference Can Save You Financial Life
first of all..................................
In our time, people forget that first of all they should respect the human being in themselves.
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
Aspirational..................................
I try to live my life based upon an internal benchmark suggested by Charlie Munger - trying to go to bed each night a little smarter than when I woke up. The compound interest on that helps work out most everything else in life.
The hopeful birth....................
.....................of a sub-division: Episode 15
Pouring the concrete curbs and gutters:
 |
| Setting the guide wires |
 |
| Correct, and level, elevations matter |
 |
| Awaiting the machine |
 |
| curb machine following the guide wire |
 |
| Concrete in |
 |
| Curb and gutter out |
 |
| The creator of this machine was fairly clever |
 |
| A bit of hand work around the storm water catch basins |
 |
| Finish product. Asphalt paving comes soon |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
